DRAFT PROGRAMME
The Islamic Golden Age of Science for today’s
knowledge-based society: The Ibn Al-Haytham example
14-15 September 2015
UNESCO HQ, Room II, 7 Place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris, France
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DAY 1 |
14 SEPTEMBER 2015
08:00-10:00| Registration
MORNING SESSION 10:00 – 12:40
10:00-10:45 | Inaugural Session
Moderator: Flavia Schlegel, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences
Irina Bokova
Director-General of UNESCO
John Dudley
President of the Steering Committee of the IYL2015
H.E. Mr Mohamed Amr
Ambassador, Chairperson of the Executive Board of
UNESCO
H.E. Mr Ziad Aldrees
Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to UNESCO
H.E. Sheikh Faisal
bin Qasim Al-Thani
Founder and Chairman of the Al Faisal Without
Borders Foundation
Video presenting ancient manuscripts of scientists of the Islamic Golden Age (Produced by the Qatar National Library)
10:45-12:40 | Session 1: History guiding the future, example of Ibn AlHaytham
Moderator: Maciej Nalecz, Director of the Division of Science Policy and
Capacity Building
Roshdi Rashed
Ibn Al-Haytham Scientific Program
Director Emeritus of Research at the National
Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (France)
Mohamad Mrayati
Major Initiatives to revitalize S&T for development in
the Arab World
Senior Adviser on Science and Technology for
Sustainable Development – UNDESA (Syria)
Josef van Ess
Light and Vision before Ibn Al-Haytham. The
Perspective of early Islamic Theology (intellectual
and historical context of Ibn Al-Haytham's ideas)
Emeritus Professor of Islamic Studies and Semitic
Languages at the University of Tübingen (Germany)
Gihan Kamel
SESAME: The First Synchrotron Light-Source in the
Middle-East and Neighbouring Regions
Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and
Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) (Egypt)
Opening of the Ibn Al-Haytham Exhibition (Hall Room I)
12:40-14:30 | Lunch break
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AFTERNOON SESSION 14:00 – 18:15
14:30-16:00 | Session 2: Light-based technologies for the future
Moderator: John Dudley, President of the IYL Steering Committee
Harry Verhaar
The relevance of LED lighting for sustainable
development
Head of Global Public & Government Affairs Philips
Lighting (Netherlands)
Eugene Arthurs
The Global Economic Impact of Photonics
CEO of the International Society of Optics and
Photonics (SPIE) (USA)
Osman Benchikh
Renewable Energy: Challenges and Perspectives
Chief of Section “Innovation and Capacity Building in
Science and Engineering” at UNESCO (UNESCO
Headquarters)
16:00-16:30 | Coffee break
16:30-18:00 | Session 3: Education and Investment in Science &Technology
Moderator: Osman Benchikh, Chief of Section “Innovation and Capacity
Building in Science and Engineering”
AbdulAziz Alswailem
Scientific Translation: A Tool from Shadow to Light
Vice President for Scientific Research Support, KACST
(Saudi Arabia)
Rolf Landua
CERN and SESAME - beacons of light for education
Head of the Education Group at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Vasudevan
Lakshminarayanan
Active Learning, Technology and STEM Education
Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Waterloo (Canada)
Ibn Al-Haytham Working White Paper on Optics and Photonics
Group
18:00-18:15 | Session 4 (Grant scheme): The legacy of the Ibn Al-Haytham
Conference
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DAY 2 |
15 SEPTEMBER 2015
08:30-08:55 | Registration
9:00-10:45 | Session 5: History of Optics 1
Moderator: Azzedine Boudrioua, Chair of Ibn Al-Haytham Working Group
Michel Paty
Des raisons de la lumière aux lumières de la raison
(Remarques sur lumière et rationalité, d’Ibn AlHaytham à Albert Einstein).
Director Emeritus of Research at the French National
Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (France)
Paul Pietquin
Translation and studies of Ibn al Haytham optics in
Latin
Lecturer at the University of Liege, Editorial Secretary of
the Journal “Les Etudes Classiques” (Belgium)
Pierre Coullet
The famous problem of Ibn al Haytham
Director Emeritus of Research at the French National
Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (France)
Vincenzo De Risi
Ibn al Haytham and the history of parallel postulate
Research Director, Max Planck Institute for the History
of Science (Germany)
J. V. Field
Perspectiva et perspective à la Renaissance
Honorary Visiting Research Fellow School of History of
Art and Screen Media, Birkbeck, University of London
(United Kingdom)
10:45-11:00 |
Coffee Break
11:00-12:45 | Session 6: History of Optics 2
Moderator: Vaseduvan Lakshminarayanan, University of Waterloo
Hassan Tahiri
Ibn Al-Haytham: Founder of Scientific Pluralism
(Portugal)
Razaullah Ansari
The Scientific Method of Ibn al Haytham
National Commission for History of Science Projects
(India)
Mohamed Baghdadi
A brief story of light
Former Director of Theoretical Physics, University
Rabat (Morocco)
Mohamed El-Gomati
Modern electron optics and the search for more
light: the legacy of Ibn Al-Haytham
Chairman of the Foundation of Science, Technology
and Civilisation (United Kingdom)
Sameen Ahmed Khan
Medieval Arab Achievements in Optics
Assistant Professor of Physics Engineering Department
Salalah College of Technology (Oman)
12:45-14:00 | Lunch break
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14:00-15:45 | Session 7: Impact of Light Science and Technology
Moderator: Mourad Zghal, Chair of the Tunisian Optical Society
Charles Falco
Al Haytham's Influence on the Optics and Culture of
Medieval Europe
Chair of Condensed Matter Physics (United States of
America)
Noureddine Melikechi
Ibn al Haytham’s: From Basra, Earth to the Gale
Crater, Mars
NASA Program Member (United States of America)
Bahaa Saleh
Stretching the limits of optics & imaging: Science
and technology challenges
Dean of CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at
the University of Central Florida (United States of
America)
Majed Chergui
Atomic-scale time with new light sources
École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (EPFL)
(Switzerland)
15:45-16:00 | Coffee break
16:00-18:00 | Session 8: Optics and photonics in the Arab and Islamic world
Moderator: Azzedine Boudrioua, Chair of Ibn Al-Haytham Working Group
Marie Abboud
Optics and Photonics Research in Lebanon: Key
figures, Ways forward
Former Head of Physics Department, Saint Joseph
University, UNESCO-L'OREAL "For Women In
Science" Award 2009
(Lebanon)
Nurdogan Can
Tunable luminescence of rare earth doped some
yttrium-based phosphors
Professor at the Department of Physics, University of
Jazan (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Mohammad D. Al-Amri
Overview of optics and photonic research in Saudi
Arabia
Associate Professor at the National Centre for
Mathematics and Physics (NCMP) at the King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology (the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia)
Selҫuk Aktürk
Optics and Photonics in Turkey
Istanbul Technical University (Turkey)
Omar Lamrous
Optics and Photonics in Algeria
Chair of the Algerian Optical and Photonics Society
(Algeria)
Mourad Zghal
Ibn Al-Haytham: 1000 years of optics
Chair of the Tunisian Optical Society (Tunisia)
18:00-19:00 |
Round table discussion and concluding remarks
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